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Landslide in Southwestern China's Yunnan Province Kills Two, 90 Missing
A landslide in southwestern China’s Yunnan province left at least two dead and 90 missing in a remote village, adding to the more than 2,000 people killed in the nation this year by flooding and mudslides.
Downpours in Yunnan triggered the landslide that swept through the village of Litoudi at 1 a.m. yesterday, the People’s Daily newspaper reported today. The death toll from an earlier landslide this month in Gansu province’s Zhouqu county rose to 1,287 yesterday with 457 missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Heavy rains forecast to hit more than 10 provinces in the next three days may cause additional mudslides, the China Meteorological Administration said today on its website. Flooding in China this year have been the deadliest in more than a decade, killing more than 1,450 people as of Aug. 6 before the Zhouqu landslide, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. In 1998, floods killed more than 4,000 people in China.
More than 1,100 soldiers, police and firefighters were mobilized for rescue and relief efforts in Yunnan’s Litoudi, Xinhua reported. Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang yesterday called on the local government to ensure timely relief work, the China News Service reported.
Downpours in the next three days may cause more landslides in the northwestern portion of Gansu, the northern part of Shanxi province, southwestern Yunnan, central Henan province and in Shaanxi province, the weather bureau said.
Rain Forecast
Heavy rainfall is also forecast from today in southwestern Sichuan province, where mudslides killed 15 people on Aug 17 in Wenchuan, epicenter of the earthquake that struck the region in 2008, China News reported. About 90,000 people were killed in the 7.9-magnitude quake.
The Beijing Meteorological Administration also warned yesterday that downpour in the coming three days may lead to landslides in the surrounding mountain areas of the capital, according to Xinhua.
As heavy rain and flooding swept these areas, other regions in China have suffered from drought. More than 3 million people and 2.46 million livestock were having difficulty accessing drinking water as of yesterday, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said. Nearly 2.6 million hectares of crops are suffering from drought, the agency said.
The most-affected areas are in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Hunan, Guizhou, Shanxi and Gansu, the agency said.
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